Crucial evidence: Hobbes on contractual obligation

VENEZIA, LUCIANO

Londres

Workshop; Hobbes: Politics and Philosophy; 2012

King's College, London

In this paper, I will introduce the notions of crucial argument and crucial evidence in the philosophy of intellectual history (broadly construed, including the history of political thought). In turn, I will use these concepts and take sides in an important controversy in Hobbes studies, namely whether Hobbes holds a prudential or a deontological theory of contractual obligation. Though there is textual evidence for both readings, I will argue that there is especially relevant evidence—crucial evidence—for interpreting Hobbes’s account in a deontological fashion.